As flooding concerns diminish across the province, concerns about wildfires and drought are beginning to percolate.
David Campbell, head of the BC River Forecast Centre, said favourable weather has mediated river flooding concerns across most of B.C. while increased rates of snow melting has bumped up the usual mid-June peak river period.
B次元官网网址淲e are seeing the accelerated snowpack melt continue in recent days from 40 to 100 per cent at the higher elevations,B次元官网网址� said Campbell.
B次元官网网址淲e are several weeks ahead of the normal flood season river peak levels due to the extreme hot temperatures over the last month.B次元官网网址�
Lingering potential flood issues still persist in the Kootenays, Campbell noted, but an absence of significant rainfall will lower the level of concern.
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B次元官网网址淭he weather looks promising and the rivers depths didnB次元官网网址檛 really change that much on the Fraser River the past few days so that is a positive sign,B次元官网网址� Campbell said.
He added the North Thompson River has likely peaked already and the South Thompson and Shuswap Lake are likely to do the same before the end of this week.
| BC Wildfire crews empty sandbags as evacuation orders are rescinded for Grand ForksB次元官网网址� downtown. Photo: Katya Slepian/Black Press |
B次元官网网址淚 expect those high stream advisories will also be pulled down in the coming days,B次元官网网址� Campbell said.
For Okanagan Lake, the water level is rising in millimetres rather than centimetres at this point, as the water discharge level into the South Okanagan system at the Penticton dam has been increased to 64 cubic metres per second, an increase of five cubic metres per second over last week.
With the outbreak of wildfires last week in the Thompson region and a West Kelowna neighbourhood, Chris Duffy, executive director of Emergency Planning B.C., said the time buffer between the wildfire and flooding seasons has all but disappeared.
B次元官网网址淲e used to see a period after flood season had pushed across the province where new grass growth in the spring would start to push up, giving us a bit of a breather between flood and fire season, but that doesnB次元官网网址檛 seem to be the case anymore,B次元官网网址� said Duffy.
The early end to flood season also raises the spectre of potential drought conditions, depending on the level of rainfall over the next two months.
B次元官网网址淓ven back to 2014 and 2015, we have seen a transition of snowpack melt to earlier in the season which will put pressure on if the weather remains hot and dry like we have seen the last five or six weeks,B次元官网网址� added Campbell.
B次元官网网址淚f those patterns continue, we are going to see more drought conditions later in the summer. But itB次元官网网址檚 still uncertain at this point where that will be going but itB次元官网网址檚 something weB次元官网网址檒l be watching closely in the weeks ahead.B次元官网网址�
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